The present invention relates to the field of electronic messaging. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a centralized access, in real-time, to messages stored in a plurality of message stores, such as different electronic mail accounts, used by a user.
Conventional messaging applications, such as E-mail readers and E-mail servers, operate according to an architecture, which is designed to handle a single account of a specific user at a time. As E-mail messaging became a more widespread technology, many users have more than one E-mail account. For example, a user may have an account at work, a private E-mail account at home, an E-mail account provided by the portal of his Internet service provider, wireline and/or cellular voice-mail, corporate voice-mail, etc.
When the user wishes to check his messages, he has to access his mailbox in each account. The user may use several different applications to access his voice-mail account, his e-mail account at work or e-mail account at home. However, this procedure is cumbersome and time consuming, since the user has to access his mailbox in each account and to check its status. More advanced methods provide the user with direct access to several E-mail sources. However, these methods also remain problematic, since the user still has multiple and separate inboxes, and inconvenient control over his outgoing mail.
Another method for centralizing the mail intended for a single user, from different mail sources, is the xe2x80x9cforwardingxe2x80x9d method. This method allows the user to forward his E-mail, voice-mail and fax messages to a single account, in which they can be stored and/or handled. However, this method suffers from storage limitations, since all the forwarded mail is stored in a single account, and some mail providers charge the user for forwarding services. In addition, in order to provide to the user an effective mail service, the storage location should be accessible from all accounts of the user (i.e., from his PC at home, from his workstation at work, from his cellular phone, etc.), located at different places. Additionally, the management of a central storage location does not conveniently allow for the updating of the mailboxes at the individual locations, thus often requiring double effort in managing incoming messages.
Online services, such as Hotmail(trademark) allow the user to poll and download mail from several different accounts into a single account, and to handle his mail from this account. However, this method also consumes storage resources, since the online service provider should store all the E-mail messages intended for each user. In addition, such concentrated storage of all the intended mail in a single location raises privacy and/or security problems.
The methods described above do not provide a satisfactory solution to another problem, since sent messages, when stored, are kept in the account from which they are sent, and not in a single location. In addition, due to economic and/or security reasons, when the user wishes to check his mailbox in each account through his telephone, some telephone companies do not provide a way for him to access his account via the Internet. Instead, in order to read his E-mail (Internet) at work, the user has to establish a telephonic connection with the Internet provider of the account at work. Then, in order to read his voice-mail at work, he has to establish a telephonic connection with the voice-messaging provider of the account at work. Of course, this procedure is relatively slow and costly, since the user has to dial several providers, and remain connected until he checks the status of his mailbox in each separate account. The procedure for checking the inbox in each account may take several minutes.
None of the methods described above has provided a satisfactory solution to the problem of providing centralized access, in real-time, to multiple messaging accounts of a user.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a real-time, centralized access, to a plurality (two or more) of electronic-mail (E-mail) accounts of a user, which overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing centralized access, in real-time, to a plurality of electronic-mail (E-mail) accounts of a user, which eliminates the need for duplicate storage of messages.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing centralized access, in real-time, to a plurality of electronic-mail (E-mail) accounts of a user, which is transparent to the regular interaction of the user with the E-mail system and to existing software.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing centralized access, in real-time, to a plurality of electronic-mail (E-mail) accounts of a user, which stores his sent massages from all accounts in a single location.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing centralized access, in real-time, to a plurality of electronic-mail (E-mail) accounts of a user, which reduces privacy and security problems.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.
The present invention is directed to a method for providing a centralized access, in real-time, to messages received in, or sent from two or more mail accounts of a user. Data related to incoming and/or outgoing messages from one or more accounts of the user is continuously aggregated and/or stored, in real-time. The user accesses each aggregated message received in or sent from the one or more accounts, from each of the one or more accounts. The aggregated data may be the whole incoming and/or outgoing message. Preferably, the status of his aggregated and/or incoming and/or outgoing messages is continuously updated and/or displayed, in real-time to the user. The term xe2x80x9cmail accountxe2x80x9d, in the context of the present invention, should be interpreted in its broadest sense, and includes every messaging system dealing with messages that can be electronically transmitted, including, but not limited to, Internet mail, e-mail, voice mail, fax mail, video mail, etc. Incoming and/or outgoing messages may include, e.g., electronic mail (E-mail), voice-mail, fax mail, video mail, or Internet/Web-mail messages. A unique ID is assigned in real-time to each message, destined to, or sent from, any account of the user and a list of aggregated unique IDs of all messages is generated. The unique ID of each message is then stored in a storage, while continuing to assign in real-time a unique ID to each new message and to update the list accordingly. The user has access to the storage from any of his accounts. Upon receiving from the user a request to access a message, the request is routed to the location in which the message is stored, according to the unique ID of the requested message, and the message is retrieved therefrom.
Preferably, the location in which the message is stored is the actual server which provides messaging services to the specific account of the user, to which the message is addressed, or from which the message is sent. Different protocols associated with different messages are unified into a common protocol which provides unified messaging services provided by the different protocols, and the user is allowed to access messages using the common protocol. Unifying messaging protocols is, of course, within the skill of the routineer, and is therefore not discussed herein in detail, for the sake of brevity.
The user can access an aggregated message via a messaging terminal, such as a wireline telephone, a cellular telephone, a Web browser or a workstation, which are linked to the store. An indication may be added to each accessed message, for allowing the user to distinguish between messages having different attributes, particularly read and unread messages.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, each message is aggregated by reading at least a portion of the message, transferring the read portion to, and storing it in the storage.
The invention is also directed to a messaging system providing a centralized access, in real-time, to messages received in, or sent from a plurality of mail accounts of a user, which comprises:
a) means for aggregating, in real-time, data related to incoming and/or outgoing messages from one or more accounts of the user; and
b) means for accessing, by the user, each aggregated message received in, or sent from said one or more accounts, from each of said one or more accounts.
Preferably, but without limitation, the messaging system further comprises circuitry and/or software for continuously updating and/or displaying to the user, in real-time, the status of his aggregated and/or incoming and/or outgoing messages. The messaging system may further include a common protocol (such as IMAP4) consisting of unified different protocols associated with different messages, which is used to support unified messaging services provided by the different protocols. Preferably, the messaging system comprises messaging terminal means linked to the storage, for accessing an aggregated message. The messaging terminal means include a wireline telephone, a cellular phone, a Web browser or a workstation. The system may further comprise circuitry and/or software for adding an indication to each accessed message, used to distinguish between different attributes of the messages, particularly between read and unread messages.